Veteran Brandon Prust (left) play fights with rookie Jake Virtanen, showing him how to handle himself during a Vancouver Canucks practice prior to the...more

Veteran Brandon Prust (left) play fights with rookie Jake Virtanen, showing him how to handle himself during a Vancouver Canucks practice prior to the start of the regular season. Now Prust is on the receiving end of roster decisions that see Virtanen replacing him in the lineup.

VANCOUVER — A frustrated Brandon Prust thinks an early return from an ankle injury this season has helped land him in his current predicament with the Vancouver Canucks.

Prust is scheduled to sit out his third straight game as a healthy scratch tonight when the Canucks meet the Nashville Predators at Rogers Arena.

Prust missed 11 games in late October and November with that ankle injury and said today that, in hindsight, he thinks he came back too early.

“The ankle has kind of nagged me a bit,” Prust said. “It was tough to find some confidence.

“I pushed myself to come back. I hate sitting out, you want to get back and help your team. You look back and I wish I wouldn’t have pushed it too hard and maybe sat out another couple of weeks because it ended up biting me in the butt a little bit. But there’s nothing you can do now.”

Prust, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, has lost his fourth-line spot in recent games to rookie Jake Virtanen. Like Chris Higgins before him, Prust looks to be a victim of the Canucks’ youth movement.

With the trade deadline looming at the end of February, the Canucks could certainly be looking to move Prust, who might have some appeal as a rental player.

“I am not going to comment on that,” Prust said. “I don’t know what is going to happen. I don’t want to go there. I am here, I am a Vancouver Canuck and I am going to come in and work hard every day and hopefully get some more opportunities.”

Prust’s agent, Claude Lemieux, said he has talked to Canucks general manager Jim Benning about Prust’s situation.

“We have not asked for a trade,” Lemieux said in a telephone interview today.

But Lemieux said if the situation doesn’t change, he would expect that Prust will be moved by the Canucks.

“Brandon has enjoyed his time there,’ Lemieux said. “Unfortunately, he got hurt and probably came back a little too early.

“Brandon wants to play. He understands the situation … But if this goes on, he is probably going to get moved.”

Prust does not have a point in his last 17 games and has not always been the energy player the Canucks envisioned they were getting when they traded Zack Kassian and a fifth-round draft pick to the Montreal Canadiens to get him last summer.

“Once the pre-season was over I felt I got off to a pretty good start,” Prust said. “I was feeling really good and felt I played some really good hockey and then obviously I had another ankle injury.

“I wasn’t really able to regain my confidence after. I started feeling really good the past couple of weeks. The first few games of the road trip I felt like I had my speed back and was making plays. But too little, too late.”

Canucks coach Willie Desjardins did not give any indication whether Prust will be back in the lineup any time soon.

“Prust made a difference to our team early in the year,” Desjardins said. “I thought he was good early. I thought before his ankle sprain he was playing well. Since then, he doesn’t seem to be quite the same.”

Prust has one goal, seven points and 59 penalty minutes in 35 games with the Canucks this season.